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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Northwest Tecumseh, West Tecumseh, Mt. Tecumseh, Green Mountain, Foss Peak, Dickey Mountain, NH
Trails
Trails: Mt. Tecumseh Trail, bushwhacks, Sosman Trail, herd paths, Welch Dickey Loop Trail
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Saturday, August 8, 2020
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: We met at the Welch-Dickey lot which was getting full but still had many spaces left at 7:30am and then drove to the Mount Tecumseh trailhead of Tripoli Rd to start our traverse. It had been a long time since I’d been on Tripoli Rd...very bumpy and lots of cars parked roadside camping. A small lot but sufficient space at the Mt Tecumseh lot when we arrived around 8am.  
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Dry Trail 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment:  
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Eastman Brook was your standard rock hop. Nothing else of any consequence.  
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: Mount Tecumseh Trail was blazed in yellow. I can’t say how frequently but it’s well trodden enough and seemed easy to follow. No blowdowns that I recall. Same with the Welch-Dickey Loop Trail. Sosman Trail the same but blazed in blue. As far as long adandoned (but still unofficial maintained) trails go, the trail between Dickey and the ski area was in great shape too! More on that below.  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: If your dog can handle bushwhacks then sure but bring lots of extra water. This hike doesn’t come across water often.  
Bugs
Bugs: I saw some flying around but never bothersome. Similar the day prior...are we nearing the end?! 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found: None 
 
Comments
Comments: What a fantastic freaking hike with some really cool people :D

We started by climbing up the northwest end of Mt Tecumseh Trail from Tripoli Rd. I’d only been on this trail once before so it was cool to be on it again a few years later. 1.3mi into the trail, in the saddle between the northwest peak of Tecumseh and the west peak, we took a direct line to the northwest peak. Lots of fern and hobble brush with some forgiving prickly spruce mixed in but pretty descent conditions and not too steep. Probably between 0.1mi and 0.2mi off trail but with zig-zagging a bit even with a direct course, it was more like a quarter mile. Just for fun we contoured down south/southwest before correcting our course east, then northeast back toward the trail. Added some extra elevation but it was cool to be off trail for longer and play around in the woods for a bit!

We made our way steeply you to the west ridge where things flatten out. We saw quite a few people around here...I didn’t think this end of the trail was used much but I was clearly wrong! I believe the spur mentioned in the guidebook to the view of Moosilauke is the summit of the west peak. Moosilauke isn’t clearly visible from this point anymore. Facing out, you’ve got to turn to the right a bit. Looks like the trees have grown up. We then made our way over to Tecumseh which felt surprisingly long. A number of people were already on the summit so we sat down and ate some just off of it on the Sosman Trail. An easy trek down the Sosman Trail taking the quick detours to the bench and viewpoints. When the trail first comes into the open by the transmission tower, we headed into the woods to the right of it at an opening.

While not initially blazed these woods were cut and felt like a herd path to me although I was the caboose. In a short ways we came upon surveyors tape and followed that hoping it would lead us in the right direction. It leads a bit too far to the left which had us a little concerned but did lead to the col and to, well, everywhere else we were trying to be! I believe the surveyors tape turned to yellow blaze shortly after we began ascending Green Mtn from the col. You’ll pass by a nice erratic shortly before the col. We had some trouble finding the trail immediately thereafter. We couldn’t initially find a summit canister or sign for Green Mtn when we came within the summit bump but this was because we hadn’t come to it yet. This was a very flat area; the true summit is not. Yellow blaze went two ways just before the first flat area. We took the path to the right. We didn’t explore but my fellow hikers thought the path to the left was just an old road. I believe it connected back with our path on the other side of the flat false summit we were at.

After signing in at the summit register and taking photos, we headed down to Foss. We had trouble finding the trail soon when we came to a bit of a blowdown area. The trail bore right around it. We came upon Foss rather quickly where there were great views. The trek to Dickey from there felt oddly long though. Perhaps it was the ledge making my legs tired. Note that the blazing stopped at Foss and so some inuition wasn’t needed in following the path from Foss to Dickey. Not much in the way of cairns either. I’d say this was actually one of the harder parts to follow for this reason. This was precisely the opposite of what we expected as we knew there was a nice herd path here but heard that between Tecumseh and Green (and possibly all the way to Foss) there were thick woods with little or no semblance of a herd path.

While most of the way is ledges we did eventually hit some woods as we neared the end of the spur on Dickey as mentioned in the guidebook. There was a time here when we couldn’t find the trail. It was to our left in the direction of a beautiful bog which was an unexpected highlight for us :) I also think we got off the path just before the ledges but it was easiest to just bushwhack at that point as we knew how close we were. The Welch-Dickey Loop was not as crowded as I would have thought and the descent was uneventful.

The trails and ledges were nice and dry throughout the day. Also, see Beth Zimmer’s report on this hike for another perspective :)  
Name
Name: Liam Cooney 
E-Mail
E-Mail: liamcooney96@gmail.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2020-08-09 
Link
Link: https:// 
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